Sun alignment with satellites equals sketchy signals

For a brief period every year, the sun lines up perfectly with a given
satellite and a given ground station. This makes life interesting for
anyone trying to use that particular combination of ground station and
satellite for a couple of minutes.

One interesting thing about this is that you can also use this to your
advantage to do a really easy site survey. Just wait until the right
time of year (now is one of them), then find the right time of day, and
go look. If you can see the sun without trees, buildings, or other
obstructions in your way, odds are you'll be able to get a signal from
that satellite just fine. Well, at least, you will when the sun gets
out of the way.

The satellite TV companies know all about this and have slides prepared
for when this happens. They put this up when the alignment takes out
one of the feeds coming into their centers. I caught this particular
set of slides back in 1997.